Google Is Developing an App to Keep You From Seeing Spoilers, You’re Welcome

It’s a familiar scenario for most people: You haven’t watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones or Mad Men, or you’ve yet to make it to the theater to check out the latest movie your friends have all been gushing over. But social media is an irresistible force, so you hop on Twitter or Facebook anyway, and soon find yourself navigating a minefield. At any given moment, you might read a spoiler. Lucky for you, there may soon be an app for that.

If you’re the sort of person who simply can’t refrain from checking Twitter or Facebook, even though you know the people you follow will likely be posting spoilers from whatever it is you’d rather not be spoiled on, then you’re in luck. According to QZ, Google has been awarded a patent for a new application that will help you filter spoilers on social media.

US Patent and Trademark Office

Here’s how it works: users update how far along they are with a certain TV show or movie, while Google’s new system would monitor that progress, along with the progress of your friends. When a friend who is further along in their consumption than you are posts something about that particular movie or show, Google will censor the content and deliver a warning that the post may contain spoilers. The system will give you the option of reading the post or not.

We live in an age of very little self-discipline when it comes to social media, making it difficult for people who want to engage or stay up to date with current posts when they haven’t watched the latest episode of a hit show or seen the newest conversation-starting film. Common sense dictates that you should just avoid Twitter and Facebook if you’re that spoiler-phobic. “But it’s haaaaard,” you say. That’s where Google comes in to allow you to safely navigate social media without learning about that one character who died in that thing, which may or may not be a spoiler — but without proper context, you just don’t know yet.

Google’s patent is for a system that would enable users to enter their info on “a social media network,” but for now it remains unclear if Google would work with Twitter and/or Facebook to implement their system, or if they’re creating a separate social media interface — which would kind of defeat the purpose, no?